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You can’t really fault people for being a bit clueless when it comes to preparing for any of a half dozen urban survival emergencies that could pop up. Sure, a backup food storage cache is a great idea, but to survive comfortably for any length of time out there you’re going to need more than a few hundred pounds of dehydrated food. When you think of modern survival, do you consider that food is the only thing you’re going to need over the course of weeks or months?

Hopefully not.

There’s the little matter of items like toilet paper, toothpaste, and shampoo. Don’t forget trash bags. When society is falls apart and gangs of starving marauders run wild in the streets, it sure would be nice to not have hundreds of pounds of trash piling up in your back yard. You might as well send up a flare that says, “Kill me and take my stuff!”

But we digress. Here’s a nifty little way to estimate how much of these other essentials for modern life you need to pack away. Carry a notepad around with you for three days and write down every single thing you use – such as the above-mentioned items. How happy of an urban survivalist do you think you’ll be with a seemingly unlimited supply of dried beans and no toilet paper?

Need we go on? Let’s not.

Simply figure your usage for a week and multiply the total of the various supplies by the number of people you’re providing for times 52 (weeks in the year) to come up with your non-staple storage goals.